PUTNAM COUNTY, TN, February 20, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Putnam County, Tennessee Emergency Management Services/911 selected Melbourne-based emergency notification company viaRadio Corporation to incorporate their ENVOY Emergency Solutions platform into the county's emergency response initiative. The system uses the latest version of common alerting protocol (CAP) to send an auto message directly to HEARO Local Alert Receivers located in targeted impact areas notifying of the impending weather events, NOAA alerts, Amber Alerts and other emergency notifications from both EMS/911 and city law enforcement officials.

Putnam County emergency management will use the ENVOY Emergency Solutions platform as part of a county wide RDS emergency notification. Emergency Services/911 Director Randy Porter says the HEARO Local Alert Receivers will be used to notify the county's schools, hospital, nursing homes, government buildings, and emergency responders.

"Our main goal is to provide fast warnings to our population that will hopefully prevent loss of life or injury in emergency situations. We think your system will make this possible and will take us into the next generation of Emergency Warning Systems," says Tyler Smith, emergency management director.

Prior to the implementation of the ENVOY system, Putnam County used VHF radio receivers that we set off by page tones on county radio consoles. According to Porter, the aging receivers were becoming less reliable and a new solution was needed.

"We had been looking for several years for something like this with no success. We compared viaRadio's ENVOY system to the competition. We believe the viaRadio product is superior and more cost effective than other options on the market today," says Porter.

"Our ENVOY Emergency Solutions platform provides a powerful and inexpensive way to wake and inform large numbers of people in a few seconds - even if power, Internet and phone circuits are down," says Sean Crane, vice president of viaRadio.

ENVOY Emergency Solutions delivers unlimited, time-sensitive text messages to viaRadio's HEARO Local Alert Receivers. HEARO receivers acquire text messages in English and Spanish through standard FM radio frequencies. Using FM radio infrastructure, the viaRadio emergency warning system works even when power, phone and Internet are out. HEARO radio receivers also carry NOAA weather warnings and have a 60-hour battery life in case of power outages.

About viaRadio

viaRadio Corporation builds and manages RDS emergency alerting networks for governments, school/university systems, emergency managers, hospitality organizations, and other large organizations in the U.S. and Caribbean. The systems include user-friendly hardware and software systems designed to trigger instantaneous text alerts to a variety of platforms including desktop alerts, cellular telephones, radiotext, LED displays, and digital signage. Systems in operation provide warning and post-event information for disasters both natural and manmade. Founded in 2005, viaRadio, along with its parent Germany-based 2wcom, are worldwide leaders in RDS/RBDS equipment and data systems. For more information about viaRadio and its RDS networks, visit http://www.viaradio.com.